This application claims priority of Korea patent Application No. 2000-47553, filed on Aug. 17, 2000.
(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a medical instrument, an more particularly, to a medical instrument to be used as a nasal aspirator or a rhinitis treatment instrument which may remove mucus by inhaling or strongly spraying fine granule type therapeutic medicines into a respiratory organ or a nasal cavity by detachably incorporating an aspirator or an injector in a single main body of the medical instrument.
(b) Description of the Related Art
In general, the moderns are highly subject to a common cold or rhinitis or other respiratory diseases due to the difference of temperature caused by seasonal variations, and increase of environmental pollution and air pollution.
In particular, infants and small children have low resistance to diseases and low ability to regulate body temperature by themselves, thus being subject to respiratory illness like a common cold caused by a variety of respiratory viruses, specially in winter times.
With the common cold, symptoms of nasal discharge, and nasal congestion/blockage usually commence in the early stage of illness. In case of infants or small children, and if progress to severity, dyspnea may be caused to infants or small children, which are potentially serious and even fatal disease. Even in case of adults, not only normal breathing becomes impossible causing inconvenience in activities but also diseases like rhinitis or empyemas may be resulted in.
To remove the blockage and obstruction from the nasal passage, tissue paper or swab is employed.
Recently, it has been proposed to remove the mucus by using a nasal aspirator that inhales mucus by using a motor power.
In the rhinitis referred to inflammation generated in a nasal mucus membrane in nose of the respiratory organ of a human body, viral rhinitis and allergic rhinitis are most popular. If a person is infected with the rhinitis, breathing becomes difficult and is accompanied with symptoms like headache or decline of attentiveness causing severer inconvenience.
Such a rhinitis patent may lighten the common cold or allergic rhinitis symptoms by inhaling or repeatedly flowing vapor of proper temperature into the nasal cavity.
As a medical instrument for lightening or curing the rhinitis symptoms, an ultrasonic spray type medical instrument for spraying a smallized granular vapor type therapeutic medicines or saline solution by using ultrasonic waves, and a compression air spray type medical instrument for spaying vapor generated by heating the therapeutic medicines or the saline solution at a predetermined temperature by using compressed air have been proposed.
The compression air spray type has been more widely used because of the higher therapeutic effect than the ultrasonic spraying type since the therapeutic medicines are more finely and strongly sprayed by using a motor power.
However, such a conventional nasal suction apparatus or rhinitis treatment instrument still has following drawbacks.
First, the conventional nasal suction apparatus or rhinitis treatment instrument is manufactured as a separate product to perform either one function to inhale mucus or to spray therapeutic medicines, and no further instrument for carrying out both of the two functions has been proposed.
Second, if it is necessary that both of the mucus inhaling and the treatment of the rhinitis should be performed, users should purchase two separate instruments respectively, which accordingly burdens the users with heavy expenses.
Both the foregoing general description and the following Detailed Description are exemplary and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.
Therefore, the present invention is derived to resolve the disadvantages or problems of the prior art and it is an object of the present invention to provide a medical instrument to be used as a nasal aspirator or a rhinitis treatment instrument which may remove mucus by inhaling or strongly spraying fine granule type therapeutic medicines into a respiratory organ or a nasal cavity by detachably incorporating an aspirator or an injector in a single main body of the medical instrument.
To accomplish the above object of the present invention, there is provided a medical instrument including a case forming a shape of a main body of the medical instrument and having a receiving space, a motor mounted in the case as a driving source which is driven by a battery, a power transmission means for converting a rotational motion of the motor to a linear motion, a pressure means connected to the power transmission means for inhaling and discharging ambient air so as to generate a suction force or discharging force of a predetermined pressure, a suction/discharge means integrally coupled with the pressure means and having an inlet for allowing an air to be inspired into the pressure means and an outlet for allowing the inspired air to be discharged from the pressure means to the outside, and a power switch mounted an external surface of the case for controlling operations of the motor, wherein either of and a suction device or an injection device is detachably mounted to the medical instrument in communication with the inlet or outlet of the suction/discharge means.
The suction device is incorporated to perform a function as a nasal aspirator which inhales mucus by a suction force generated by an operation of the pressure means, and the injection device is incorporated to perform a function as a rhinitis treatment instrument by spraying fluid such as medicine by a discharge force generated by an operation of the pressure means.
The injection device is provided with an intermittent injection means in a main body for continuous injection of the fluid with a predetermined time interval, when the injection device is in use.